Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

Hey guys. So obviously I really stuck to my New Years resolution to post at least once a week. I have no excuse except it has literally taken me months to read one book. Whether that was the books fault, or my fault I don’t know, but either way, it’s been hard to review content these days.

Anyway, on to the book. I very excitedly picked this one up the day it came out, anxious to read it. I loved “The Red Queen,” and the cliffhanger killed me. I couldn’t wait for the sequel to come out and when it got here I assumed that I would anxiously devour it. Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book well enough, but it felt very much like a filler between the first and the next installment.

What I liked: I enjoyed being introduced to the new characters with new abilities-some of which were incredibly cool. There is something very relevant about this band of people coming together to fight their oppressors, and as most of the action came from the moments the newbloods spent together, I enjoyed these scenes the most. Cal remains my favorite character, even though we did not see as much of him as I would have liked. The best part of this sequel for me was the way it refused to solve anything. I admire Aveyard a lot in the way she refuses to fix her characters. Everyone is flawed, not just Mare, and this makes them incredibly realistic. The realities of war are shown in this sequel and no one is safe. There are two major deaths in this book which reiterates that Aveyard is so not afraid to go there.

What I didn’t like: The pacing. Oh god, the pacing. This book took me almost two months to finish because the middle was incredibly slow. A lot of the action is repetitive. Find a newblood, get them, get foiled, win, move on. The book felt like one unending loop of Mare trying to be less of a horrible person, while becoming more of a horrible person, and then they would go find something to do. It lacked plot and cohesion and was very difficult to get through. Aveyard also introduces these new and exciting characters, which could really liven the book up, but refuses to utilize them effectively. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mare. I think she’s a great dimensional heroine, but god she got on my nerves.

Overall, this book was fine. If you enjoy a lot of exposition you’ll probably like this, but for the rest of us, it feels like a filler. 2.5/5